The next meeting of the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society will be the Christmas party on Tuesday, December 10th at 6 PM for TCGHS members.

Our Terri Lynn Nuts and Candies have arrived!. Stop by TCGHS and pick up a bag or box while there is still a selection to choose from as they won’t last long.

All history is local until it is woven together with other stories to become part of the National fabric and there is no aspect of National history that doesn’t touch Tazewell County. Let’s visit Christmas past:

Take a trip down memory lane through the days when Christmas shopping meant a trip to downtown where there would often be beautiful window displays and lots of candy and toys to tempt us all:

The Christmas ad above was from the December 1921 Pekin Times. Pekin Candy Kitchen was run by George Troughton (1880-1960) at that time. George had played professional baseball in his youth with the Three-I League and the Illinois-Missouri League. He was a newspaper man most of his adult life. He held several different positions before settling into advertising.

Pekin Candy Kitchen should not be confused with the Princess Candy Kitchen which was in operation at the same time but continued in business much longer. The Princess, at 402 Court, was run by Jennie Glassford (1901-1966) and her daughter and son-in-law, Ann and Darrell McComas. It was the hangout spot for Pekin teens for many, many years.

Two more ads from the 1921 paper: 

Boston Shoes must’ve been short lived as it’s not found in any of the city directories.

Crawford’s was a fixture downtown for many years with many different managers.

Central Book & Toy was one of the icons of downtown for forty years. The store first appeared in the 1928 city directory and last appeared in 1968. Eugene Lohnes opened the store as Central Book. (The Lohnes family also had a Print Shop downtown.). Central Book & Toy later transferred to his son-in-law, Robert Paullin (1916-1995), who owned the store during the last twenty years of its existence.

The below ad ran in the Pekin Daily Times in December 1950. 

The ad doesn’t mention stuffed animals but your columnist had several from the Toy side of the store. My brother had the trains.

The Lohnes family traces back to immigrants from Hesse-Darmstadt, John and Louisa Wildhack Lohnes. 

Ellen Lohnes Paullin was a daughter of Eugene F. Lohnes (1892-1951). His parents were William Andrew (1866-1941) and Minnie Hunter Lohnes. William’s parents, John and Louisa, were both immigrants from the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 

Johann Lohnes was born 2 July 1837 in Germany to Adam and Margaret Elizabeth Lohnes. It would appear that John Lohnes arrived in New York harbor around the 6 September 1860 on board the ship Saint Nicolas. He made his way to Pekin where on the 13th December 1865 he married Louisa Wildhack, a daughter of Wilhelm A. Wildhack and Anna Maria Ruehl.

Louisa and an older sister, Elizabeth, left Germany in 1857 on board the ship Hemisphere to join an older brother, John Wildhack, who was already in Pekin. John Wildhack had left Germany in 1849 and signed his Declaration of Intent to become a citizen in Pekin September 14, 1850. 

John and Louisa Lohnes had four children: William, Hugo, Otto, and August. Hugo was the father of longtime Justice of the Peace Walter Scott Lohnes.

If you would like to view the Ship Passenger Lists, Naturalization, Census, Marriage, or other records, stop by TCGHS. We’ll even show you how to put the records together to form a family tree.

Other stores from 1968 that are long gone but not forgotten:

Bush Fish Market, Comisky Furniture, Piro’s Streamline Billiard Parlor, Fredman Brothers Furniture, Western Auto, Gehrig Cigar Store, Allen’s Vogue, Carp’s Department Store, Golden Rule Shoe Store, Ben Franklin five and ten cent store, Gamble-Skogmo Furniture Store, Russ Strauman’s Men’s Store, Schipper & Block Dept. Store, and Pekin Hardware.

Happy Christmas to all!

The Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is an award-winning 501c3, all volunteer organization that has been in continuous service to our members and the public for over 46 years. TCGHS operates an archive, library, and research facility at 719 N. 11th St., Pekin. Visit our website at www.tcghs.org to learn more about us. If you have any point of interest that you would like to know more about, stop in at TCGHS or drop us a line.